


A Story For Two

by PrincessLocket



Category: Inazuma Eleven, Inazuma Eleven: Ares no Tenbin, Inazuma Eleven: Orion no Kokuin
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Bodyswap, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Other characters make minor appearances - Freeform, Strained Friendships, Time Skips, Your Name AU, implied fighting, in which the sun garden kids were never taken in by seijirou
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:15:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26449156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrincessLocket/pseuds/PrincessLocket
Summary: Neither of them knew how or why it started, but one day they began swapping bodies.Your Name/Kimi No Na Wa AU
Relationships: Kira Hiroto/Kiyama Tatsuya | Kiyama Hiroto | Gran
Kudos: 16





	A Story For Two

Tatsuya woke abruptly to the sound of a drums playing loudly at the corner of his ear. It was a rather obnoxious sound of drumsticks repeatedly hitting the batter head and hoops of the drum, something he only barely took notice of as the song continued to blare at an alarmingly loud frequency.

Having had enough, Tatsuya made a grab for the phone, grumbling as he swiped at the screen to press on the snooze button. When he had successfully shut off the song he took a moment to stretch out his body. On any other day he’d normally wake up to the feeling of sore muscles and a strange constricting pain in his back, but for some reason, he wasn’t being met with any kind of pain as he raised his arms over his head. Now that was odd in itself, but what was even stranger was the feeling of soft and fluffy fabric laying both over and under his body. Something about that caused him to finally try sitting up in bed.

His eyes scanned around his surroundings, aided only by the slight morning rays of sunlight peeking in past the curtains of a window near his bedside. Wait a minute, his bed was usually on the furthest side of room, tucked into a corner where no one else would bother him. So, how had he ended up here? Had someone moved him while he was sleeping or had he unknowingly taken over this bed by accident? No matter, whatever had been the cause of this sudden bed change was out of hands now. Instead of fussing over it, he allowed his gaze to flicker over to the area where he assumed his empty bed would be only to find large desk with various items spread on top of it.

He didn’t own a desk… Then again, nobody at Sun Garden owned a desk, nor did they have enough space in their shared room to be able to fit anything bigger than their own beds in it.

Tatsuya continued to look around the room, taking in all of its features, noting with every added piece of furniture, that this was in fact _not_ his room. Wherever he was, he needed to get of there and fast. Sure he may be safe now, but if someone were to enter the room, he’d have no way of explaining how or why he was here. He stole a glance at the discarded phone and opted to grab it. It was at that moment where he finally took a notice of himself in the blacked-out reflection of the phone.

He was definitely looking into the screen but the person starting back at him was completely different from his own normal reflection. The person he saw had curly hair and what appeared to be a lightning bolt tattooed over his left eye. Tatsuya blinked once, twice, then three times before the screen burst to life with an incoming notification. He dropped the phone, bringing a hand to grip at the fabric over his chest. His heart was pounding wildly behind his ribs.

Something wasn’t right.

He took several deep breaths to try to calm his rapidly beating heart and when he felt had calmed down enough, he reached for the phone again, tilting it upward to avoid looking at the screen.

He was probably just seeing things. Whoever he had been looking at in the screen before was just a figment of his imagination. Yeah, that was it! He was probably still half asleep so his mind was playing tricks on him. That had to be the most logical explanation for all of this. This room was just a last-minute illusion his mind was still holding onto. All he needed to do was ride out whatever kind of weird dream this was and everything would return to normal eventually.

He turned on the phone before tilting it back to himself once more, and sure enough, the phone screen had a wallpaper of some random band he didn’t even know of. But no matter, all he had to do for now was ignore these small illusions. Sooner or later they would go away. Tatsuya took a breath before taping on the dimly lit notification on the screen. It quickly opened to reveal a text from someone by the name of Hitomiko?

“Who is-“ He started to mumble out loud but was stopped by a rapid knocking at his door.

“Hurry up Hiroto! Breakfast is almost ready and if you don’t get to the table by the time it’s done I’m going to make sure to eat your toast.”

Whoever had been talking left no room for any further comment for the sound of heels clacking away in the distance echoed rather loudly in the once quiet room. Tatsuya glanced a look back at the phone in his hands, looking back to the name of the person he had no idea existed. Despite his better judgment, he opened the message, briefly looking over the picture of said person at the corner of the screen, before reading the message.

**Hitomiko: _I hope you aren’t hitting the snooze button and going back to sleep again. Dad’s got something fun planned for the both of us today so you better get up soon or else._**

Tatsuya fought back the will to roll his eyes at the last few words of the message. Or else? Or else what? Whatever this Hitomiko person had in store could never truly measure up to what pain he had to endure back at Sun Garden felt like. Then again, if this Hitomiko person could somehow ensure an even worse pain than what he’d felt in the past, he didn’t want to accidentally press his luck. Tatsuya promptly turned off his phone and was met again with a reflected face he didn’t know. Oh yeah…

He looked around the room until he came across what he assumed to be the door of a closet, if the clothes piled around it was anything to go by that is and sighed. He allowed himself another quick stretch before he jumped out of bed and quietly made his way over to the closet. When he reached out a hand to grab the doorknob, he hesitated for a moment. If the clothes where strewn out on the outside then wouldn’t that mean the inside was just as messy? Not wanting to be taken down by a pile of clothes, he took a step back before opening the door. What awaited him inside made him laugh. There were no clothes strewn all about. In fact, everything appeared to be neatly placed on hangers, which was quiet impressive, but what was funny was the fact that just about every piece of clothing were all colored in either dark grays or blacks. There wasn’t even a single ounce of color to be seen in sight! How could anyone wear these without trying to add a little splash of color to them?

Tatsuya continued to laugh as he swept his gaze around the closet until he made the unfortunate decision to turn his attention to the door of the closet. Hanging on the door was a full-length mirror, giving him access to view not only the entirety of his face, but the rest of his body as well. And oh boy, this wasn’t his body in the slightest.

* * *

As soon as he walked into the main dining room, all eyes were on him. Hitomiko’s eyes were narrowed, not in a threatening way, but one that could only be described as look of concern. The several maids that were setting food around the table also shared similar concerning gazes. However, as he continued to move further into the dinning room, each person turned their attention back to their tasks of setting food and moving about. Hitomiko on the hand kept her eyes trained on her brother until he sat down in the chair across from her.

“Someone seems to be acting ‘normal’ again today.” Hitomiko mumbled as she placed her chin into her hand. “Care to tall me why you were so eager to spend the day with dad and I, Hiroto?”

Hiroto rolled his eyes as he slumped against the back of his chair. “You must still be dreaming because there’s no way that I’d ever be so happy as to spend an entire day with you and dad.”

Something about the way he said that made Hitomiko’s eyebrows crease with confusion. It was obvious enough to get Hiroto to sit up in his chair a little, but when he noticed his own action, he made an even bigger effort to slouch in his seat.

“Seriously? What’s gotten into you?” Hitomiko paused when a plate of eggs and toast were placed in front her. She graciously thanked the maid who then placed a similar plate in front of Hiroto. Hitomiko waited for the maid to leave not only the table, but the room as well, before she continued on. “You were acting as if you were a whole other person yesterday. It was kind of… unnerving if you ask me-“

“Yeah? Well I wasn’t asking you and like I said, you must’ve dreamt this up, because I’ve always acted the same way as I do now.” Hiroto grumbled, taking a rather large bite from the piece of toast that had previously been on his plate.

The conversation was dropped all too quickly after that. Neither sibling spoke as they ate their breakfast in silence. Hitomiko would sneak a glance every now and then at Hiroto, pondering whether or not to try talking with him again but ultimately kept her mouth shut. If Hiroto wanted to keep talking he would’ve changed the subject immediately after voicing his opinion. But since he’d gone quiet, Hitomiko knew getting him to talk now would be pointless. Hiroto would speak up if and when he wanted to.

Fortunately for Hitomiko, she wouldn’t have to stay sitting in silence for much longer because a certain someone entered the room just as Hiroto was making a move to leave.

“Good morning Hiroto, Hitomiko.” Seijirou greeted. He smiled a tired smile as he made his way towards the table. His smile widened when he realized he and Hiroto were about to cross paths. Seijirou reached out a hand to place in his sons’ hair but found Hiroto maneuvering away from his reach as they walked past each other.

Seijirou turned to watch Hiroto continue out the room. The smile he had faltered for a moment before he shook his head, turning his attention to his daughter instead.

“I guess his changed attitude yesterday was a onetime thing?”

Hitomiko could only shrug in response. Her brother sure was a mystery sometimes.

…

Hiroto groaned at the display he had unknowingly walked himself into. When he had agreed to hang out with Haizaki and Mizukamiya earlier that morning he had initially thought they would just be going to an arcade to blow off some steam from the stressful week they had each endured at their respective schools. What he hadn’t agreed on was being the third wheel to his so-called friends arcade date.

Hiroto could tolerate his friends being in a relationship. After all, they were his friends above all else, and their happiness often brought him some of his own. But when he had the unfortunate front row seat of watching their more private moments, such as kisses that lingered for much longer than a simple peck on the lips, Hiroto would question why he was even hanging out with them. If he wanted to watch two people get all lovey-dovey with each other, he’d just go home and watch one of Hitomiko’s romcoms on TV.

But, at the end of the day, he knew he wouldn’t just up and ditch his friends like that. He might retreat to an area across the room until his friends found him, but he would never fully leave them. They’d notice his disappearance eventually and would go find him. It was just something the three of them had come to terms with over the years. And at the moment, he was very much considering moving across the room to play an abandoned rhythm game just to get away from the awkwardness of being a third wheel.

Fortunately, and unfortunately, for Hiroto, Mizukamiya seemed to notice his interest in the game as well.

“That game looks interesting. Did you maybe want to try it out?”

“Not really…Although, I wouldn’t mind playing it just to put my name in its top score.” Hiroto smirked.

“As if you have any sense of hand eye coordination.” Haizaki scoffed, rolling his eyes. “I bet you’ll mess up in the first half of the song and then give up playing it at all within in the second half.”

Hiroto set his face into a scowl, cursing under his breath as he stood up from his seat on the bench. He was going to prove Haizaki wrong. After all, he was the god of games… or at least he was when he was in the arcade. But as he began to move past his friends, he heard a rather loud sigh and the sound feet behind him. He didn’t need to look back to know his friends were following him. So when he was standing in front of the rhythm game he picked on the multi-player option and waited for the list of available songs to come up.

Several well-known J-POP songs filled the screen, followed by a few vocaloid songs, and then some songs of mixed languages. Having no real preference, Hiroto let Haizaki decide.

It took a few minutes of scrolling but when the screen switched to start the actual game, Hiroto found the song to be an old vocaloid song he used to listen to back when he had just met Haizaki and Mizukamiya. In a way it helped Hiroto get into the game a little more than he had expected- With each passing sequence of the song, Hiroto could feel himself loosening up little by little. There were a few times were he almost missed clicked on a sequence but he always caught it before the colored tile could leave the screen. By the time the song ended, Hiroto was back to feeling satisfied with his decision to be out with his friends. Haizaki on the other hand… Well, he kicked the game before turning his attention elsewhere.

“Look’s like I’m not the one lacking hand eye coordination, now am I?” Hiroto smirked while typing his name into the games high score list.

The only response he got was a grunt of annoyance and a pat on the back from Mizukamiya.

“He gets it- You’re great at these kinds of games and he’s… working on it- Anyways, why don’t we go somewhere else for a little while? Maybe the park?”

Hiroto laughed. “Might as well, it’s not like either of you were paying much attention to the games in here anyway.” The glare he received from Haizaki only made him laugh once more- not to mention the blush that quickly dusted across Mizukamiya’s cheeks. Teasing these two was almost too easy sometimes.

Instead of waiting for a reply, Hiroto made his way out of the arcade with Haizaki and Mizukamiya following on either side of him. They walked in silence for a block or two before Mizukamiya decided it was time to break the ice. Though he mostly spoke to himself at first. Haizaki and Hiroto gradually joined in on the one-sided conversation. And by the time they had reached the park, they were all laughing over a joke Haizaki had made. Things were looking good for the moment but of course, a certain someone just had to show up to ruin it.

Hiroto groaned as he slowed his pace into the park. Out of the places he could’ve run into his father… It just had to be the park. Well, there was no way he was going to let his old man see him now, especially not when he was alone with his friends. Haizaki seemed to notice his change in pace and slowed down a bit, sighing in annoyance. After being friends with Hiroto for so long he and Mizukamiya could almost read Hiroto like an open book. “Oi! You’re not going to ditch us are you? There’s literally nobody else here so if think we won’t notice when you leave, then you’ve got another thing coming.”

“Lay off will ya! I’m not going anywhere.” Hiroto snapped, wrinkling his nose. “My feet are just tired from walking all this way. Can’t a guy walk a little slow every now and then?”

Just as Haizaki was going to say something, a cheerful voice called out to them from a distance.

“Good evening boys! Doesn’t it feel nice to be out of the house every now and then?”

No- He wasn’t going to do this, not today. Hiroto quickly turned on his heel, walking back towards the entrance of the park. He knew something like this was going to happen. His dad always had to make a scene wherever he went. Sure, all he did was ask a question, but still!

Hiroto heard footsteps behind him, followed by a hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged it off as he walked out of the park. He couldn’t deal with this right now. If his friends wanted to stay in the park they could but he was done. He’d just go hang out by a convenience store or something until it got dark out. It didn’t matter where he’d end up. He just needed to get out of there before his dad could come over and say something that would embarrass him even further than he already was.

“I wish I had a parent who was less attentive than you.” He mumbled unconsciously.

Hiroto glanced a look behind his shoulder, half expecting to receive a slap on the back for having said such words but found himself to be alone. That was just fine. He’d hardly even talked the entire time he was with his friends anyway. Being on his own now was no different- speaking of which- he hadn’t even bothered to look at his phone since the night before… Had he even charged it before going to bed? He couldn’t remember?

No matter, he grabbed the phone out of his pocket, opening up a random music app, and set it to shuffle. He then plugged in his earbuds and looped them around his ears before he exited the app. It was then that he took a glance at the time; 4:55, not too bad. He could stand to hang around the city for a little while longer. Since it was a Saturday, most stores would be open for longer hours than they normally would during the weekdays anyway! Or that’s what he had initially thought.

When he rounded a corner into a popular sales district, Hiroto found many of the stores to be closing up for the night.

This was new? Since when did stores start closing up so early into the day? Hiroto shrugged and continued his way down the shopping district. He turned the volume of his phone down a little to listen in on the conversations around him, hoping to find out why the stores where closing so early, but only found dull banter to be the subject of most conversations. Having had enough, Hiroto made a move to increase the volume of his music once more. But before the volume of the song could overtake his hearing, he caught the tail-end of conversation, causing him to nearly trip over his own toe shoes.

“-well, it may have been another boring Sunday, but at least tomorrow’ll make for a better day.”

Sunday? Whoever had said that had to have been joking. The day was barely halfway over- another typical Saturday evening. Sure they may be heading into Sunday within the next couple of hours, but they were still pretty far from being able to call today Sunday.

Shaking his head, Hiroto continued to walk. The music playing from his phone drowned out his thoughts for a little but after some time he found himself drifting back to the words he had heard minutes prior. He grumbled in annoyance when a song centered around time came on. He waisted no time in taking out his phone, fully prepared to switch the song when his eyes darted up to the battery on his phone. Oh yeah, he forgot to check on the percentage earlier.

He had less than 15% left on his phone.

Great. Now he’d have to ask someone for the time when his phone would inevitably die on him.

To save what was left of his battery, Hiroto tuned off his music and unplugged his earbuds from the phone. He then stuffed the earbuds back into his pocket and glared a harmless glare at his phone, mentally kicking himself as he thought about checking the calendar on it. Unfortunately, he found his fingers betraying him seeing as they were already pulling up said calendar.

He stopped in place when his eyes fell upon the date.

A chill ran up his spine as he looked at the highlighted date.

It was in fact Sunday.

Not only was the date highlighted, but there was also a note attached to the Saturday before. He quickly pressed on the note, eyes narrowing in confusion as he scanned the text.

**_Who are you?_ **

* * *

Hiroto woke with a start. A weight of some kind had dropped onto his stomach, knocking the air out of him, and causing him to sit upright almost immediately upon the impact. He gasped for air for a few seconds, before looking at the thing that had woken him up.

To his surprise, it was more like a _someone_ rather than a something that had woken him up. A boy with green hair lay outstretched across his stomach with a sly grin on his face.

“Morning sleepyhead. It’s about time you got up! I know yesterday was hard but we gotta hurry up and get breakfast ready for everyone.” The boy smiled as he lifted himself off of Hiroto’s stomach. “I’ll give you a minute to go get cleaned up but if you’re not in the kitchen within the next 15 minutes I’ll make sure to give Saginuma your homework so he can copy it.”

Hiroto blinked when the boy stared back at him expectantly. It was almost as if he was waiting for a reply. However, when it became apart that he wouldn’t be receiving any, the boy sighed, eyes flickering with a look of annoyance before leaving Hiroto to figure out what was going on.

As soon as the boy was out of sight, Hiroto let out a yawn, not yet understanding what had just happened. The only coherent thought running through his mind was how he was going to enact his revenge on the guy who had woken him up. Who cared if this guy was a new employee in the house, they should’ve been told by his dad to stay out and away from his room. It was almost customary for anyone working at his home to know this upon applying up for the job. So why had this green haired boy gone against this simple rule?

Something about that thought made Hiroto glance a look to his door. He was half expecting to find it open but when he looked in the direction of where his door should have been, it was missing. In fact, there was no door at all. Only a badly painted wall with several beds lined against it occupied the space.

“What the-“

“Tatsuya!” A voice whisper shouted from behind him.

Hiroto turned. The boy who had woken him up was leaning up against a door frame. His eyes were narrowed as he beckoned Hiroto to him.

“You better not be trying to go back to sleep! We don’t have much time to waste today so please hurry up!”

The boy disappeared before Hiroto could even get a word out.

Okay, something was wrong. Either he was still dreaming or this random guy was messing with him… He took a moment to reflect on the night before- He had returned to his home somewhat late into the night but he was positive he had made it safely into the house. He could remember going to his room undetected by any of the maids or his family and yet. Somehow he had ended here, wherever here was.

Maybe the guy who kept calling him “Tatsuya” would have some answers. Yeah, he had to know what was going on! Maybe he was just some actor hired by his sister that had come to home in order to prank him. And maybe, once he got out of the room he would be greeted with confetti and Hitomiko holding a sign that read “Gotcha!”

Hiroto huffed in annoyance. If Hitomiko really was trying to prank him then two could play at this game. With his feelings have come to a mutual resolve, Hiroto decided it was time to get out of bed. That was his first mistake. The moment he began to move, his body had made quick work to send little sparks of pain all across his body. He hissed as he ceased his movements. That was his second mistake. The pain in body only seemed to amplify as he remained frozen in place. He squeezed his eyes shut while he tried to endure the pain.

After a minute of remaining in his frozen state, Hiroto decided to try wiggling his fingers. Each finger appeared to move with ease, not a single ounce of pain radiating from them. His wrists were next, followed by the entirety of his arms and then his legs. Everything seemed to be fine but a dull burning sensation seemed to quietly linger in his joints even when he finally made a full effort to extract himself from the bed.

He slowly made his way out of the room, maneuvering around the beds with a bit of hesitation in each step. It looked like there were still people sleeping each bed he passed by. And even though he wanted answers as soon as possible he wasn’t about to go as far as to wake anyone up. The guy with green hair was the one who held the answers he was looking for. There was no need to get any of these people involved, at least not yet.

When he had successfully made it out the room, Hiroto was surprised to find how awful the hallway looked compared to the inside of the bedroom. There were cobwebs hanging all over the sides of walls, some of them even dangling from the ceiling. Chipped paint accompanied the cobwebs in a very unappealing way. And to top it off, mud stains tracked the floorboards at almost every angle. Thankfully, when he looked down, Hiroto found himself to be wearing a pair of shoes. However, these shoes looked way too worn out to be any pair of his own.

While he examined the shoes, he failed to notice the bandages wrapped across his legs or how his now red hair framed the sides of his face.

When he did take notice of the bandages he sucked in a sharp breath. How did he get those? When did he get them? He reached down to poke the center of one of them and instantly recoiled when a sharp pain made its way across his leg.

He whipped his head back to face the inside of the bedroom to see if anyone was watching him. His eyes swept across each bed carefully, taking note of each person’s closed eyes. When it was apparent that they were all still asleep, he took a breath before rushing down the hallway.

Getting to a bathroom to examine what was under the bandages was now the only thing he could think of. He’d find the green haired boy sooner or later, but for now he just needed to see what was under the bandages. It took several attempts to find the bathroom- having had opened door after door and coming up with empty dirty rooms one after another- but when he had finally managed to find a bathroom he made quick work of locking the door and throwing a fist right at center of it.

“What kind of place is this?”

He turned to face the mirror, fully prepared to find his face tracked with sweat but found another face staring at him instead.

“Huh?” Hiroto mouthed, watching as the face twisted with the same scowl he was making. He blinked once, twice, then three times and watched in aw as the person in the mirror copied him each time. He took a breath before he tumbled towards the mirror.

Standing before him was a complete stranger with red hair, pale skin, and bright teal eyes filled with as much as much confusion as he was feeling in that moment. He reached a hand forward to touch the cold glass of the mirror and watched with mesmerized eyes as the person followed his motion. A feeling of dread slowly began to wash over him when he withdrew his hand from the mirror. He could now see red hair out of the corner of his peripheral and when he reached out a hand to grasp the hair, it became even more apparent that _yes_ the person in the mirror was him.

He took a step back from the mirror, then another, and another, all the way until his back was pressed up against a wall.

“This can’t be happening.”

….

Later that day Hiroto would find himself awkwardly sitting next to the green haired boy, who he found out was named, Midorikawa, in a run-down looking high school. Not only had he found out the boy’s name, but he also found out the guy was supposedly crushing on him? The only way he was able to figure this part out when someone named Saginuma had teased Midorikawa about his supposed crush on Tatsuya on their way to the school.

Of course Midorikawa had denied it but the blush that spread across his checks was a pretty telling sign of his crush on Tatsuya. Or at least, that’s what Hiroto believed it was. If he had learned anything from watching Haizaki and Mizukamiya dance around each other’s feelings for so long, then he could pretty much tell Midorikawa was doing something similar.

Hiroto had left the bathroom almost an hour after he had locked himself in there. The whole time he was there he had been going through different scenarios in his head on how he had to be dreaming; that there was no way Hitomiko could possibly manage to change his appearance and location so drastically overnight. But when he thought back to the pain he had felt while getting up from bed that morning, he ruled the possibility of this being a dream out of his mind. So if this wasn’t a dream, and dare he say, not a prank either, then what was going on? With each passing second he felt himself sinking into a strange sense of despair. Had something really happened to him overnight that could possibly result in this sudden change? He didn’t know…His tried to retrace his memories of the previous day as best as he could. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. All he had really done was hang out with his friends, before he ditched them like he said he wouldn’t- Something about that made a certain line replay in his mind.

_“I wish I had a parent who was less attentive than you.”_

What if that was it? If he remembered correctly, he was often told to be careful what he wished for when he was a child. So maybe, just maybe, his ‘wish’ had come true over night? Maybe he had swapped bodies with someone and was now living in a home with less overbearing parents? That was the only other thing that could make sense, besides this all being a drastic prank. After contemplating the thought a bit more, he found himself leaving the bathroom in order to find where the green haired boy had gone off to. He’d deal with the bandages some other time.

He eventually found the boy, along with several other people around their age, gathered around a dining room table, finishing their breakfast. When their eyes met Midorikawa practically jumped out of his seat. He had made his way over to Tatsuya with a look of furry in his eyes, though it did very little to intimidate Hiroto.

“You’ve got a lot of explaining to do mister! I can’t believe you left me to do make breakfast all on my own!” He had said. Then without warning, Midorikawa threw an arm around Hiroto’s neck, pulling him in close. “I’ll forgive you this once _if_ you agree to prepare dinner by yourself tonight _and_ if you agree to sit next to me during class today – I can’t go another day sitting all by myself.”

And that’s how Hiroto found himself sitting next to Midorikawa. To be honest, he was expecting the guy to be a talker like Mizukamiya, but throughout the first half of the day, he found Midorikawa to be rather quiet as he took notes over each subject they were taught in the moment. 

He was thankful when lunch rolled around. It meant he could leave the room for a little and try to piece his new life together a bit more. But when he had risen from his seat to leave, Midorikawa had instantly stood up as well, hooking an arm around his, ready to go grab some lunch from the cafeteria.

Hiroto tried to make up several different excuses as to why he needed be alone, but whatever he came up with, Midorikawa would counteract with a snarky reply of some kind. Some how it only made Hiroto want to get away from the green haired male even more. Unfortunately for him, he would wind up spending the rest of the school day with Midorikawa, although he did manage to learn a few more things of his new life while being with Midorikawa.

For starters, he had learned he was supposedly an orphan with everyone he lived with. Which in hindsight, made sense seeing as the home he had been in looked pretty run down for a building that held so many people. He also learned the orphanage he was staying at had no real caretakers. The original owners had pretty much left everyone to fend for themselves a few years back and now he and Midorikawa were the ones who looked after everyone’s well being in the home. Not only that but, most of their friends would call them the ‘parents of the house.’ Upon hearing such a line, Hiroto had burst out laughing, tears forming at the corners of his eyes. As if he’d ever become anyone’s de facto parent!

Apparently laughing was the wrong move.

Midorikawa had ignored him for the rest of the day, not that he had been talking to Hiroto much in the first place, but once the bell rang to signal the ending of school, Midorikawa got up from his seat and left Hiroto in the room to figure out how to get home on his own.

If he were the real Tatsuya, Hiroto would’ve had no trouble walking home by himself. But since he wasn’t the real Tatsuya everyone expected him to be, Hiroto found himself wandering around some sketchy looking streets well past the time the sun had gone down. He had tried using the GPS app in ‘his’ phone but since he had no idea of what ‘his’ homes address was, it made it that much harder to get find his way back.

He had texted just about everyone in the phone’s contact, asking for help on getting back home, but each response he got made it seem like they were joking with him- everyone failing to realize the seriousness of the situation. The only person he hadn’t tried texting yet was Midorikawa.

Hiroto rolled his eyes at the contact picture picture chosen for the green haired male. Whoever this Tatsuya guy must’ve been close because the contact photo showed ‘his’ face and Midorikawa’s squished together, each of them smiling wide at the camera.

In a way the photo reminded him of his own friends back at home. Haizaki and Mizukamiya could be a pain in his side from time to time but they always made him feel just as happy as the contact looked in the phone. A little pang of guilt washed over him as he recalled the days previous events. He really should apologize to them- if he ever gets the chance to see them again…

He looked up to the sky, eyes darting around until they landed on a single star in the sky. He looked back down, head turning from side to side, scanning for anyone who might see him. When it was apparent that nobody was around, he clasped his hands together and looked back up at the star, determination filling his eyes.

“Please let me see them again.”

He silently counted the seconds as a minute went by and when nothing happened, he groaned, slapping a hand to his forehead as he turned to walk away with his back facing the star. Wishing on stars was pointless anyway. When he had muttered his ‘wish’ yesterday there definitely weren’t any stars out to begin with. So why would wishing on one now make any difference?

As he walked the smell of something sweet filled the air. On cue, his stomach choose that moment to let out a loud growl. Hiroto shrugged and let his nose lead the way. He was already lost. He didn’t need to add being hungry onto his list of bad things that’s happened to him today.

He made his way around a street corner and came face to face with an outdoor candy shop. The candy was mostly wrapped in clear plastic bags around a makeshift counter. Each bag held a variety of old candies in them and from the looks of it, not many of them been sold that day. In a way it made Hiroto fill a twinge of guilt. He decided to get a closer look at the candy but kept a subtle distance from the bags as a precaution.

His stomach growled again and he reached his hands into his pants pockets. He had put couple wads of yen in his pockets earlier that day. Each pocket contained a little something but he couldn’t exactly remember which one held the higher amount in it. When both hands had the yen secured in them, he took them out and combined their total. He had exactly 700 yen, which was coincidentally, the same amount the bags of candy cost. He looked around for the person in charge of the candy but came up with no one.

He crossed his arms as he stared at the bag of candy. If he just took it, nobody would notice but he wasn’t that kind of person. Haizaki maybe, but him. He looked around the bags of candy for a bell or something to ring and found a small one just off to the side. With a shrug, he rang the bell and waited for a reply. When he received none, he rang it again and again and again until he was simply just ringing it in his left hand while his right hand typed a message into the phones calendar

“I hear the bell! So could you please stop ringing it!” A voice suddenly called out from behind the candies.

Hiroto stopped a second after the voice asked him to. He set the bell next to one of the bags of candies and looked to the person who was standing behind them. It was short elderly lady. Her smile was kind but her eyes were dark with exhaustion. However, when she looked at Hiroto, her eyes lit up with excitement.

“Tatsuya! It’s good to see you again. It’s been almost a month since you last came to visit, what’s been keeping you so long?” The lady smiled wider.

“I uh… was busy.” Hiroto said, not really knowing what else to say.

The lady hummed in response, eyes carefully roaming his face. “I see… Would you like to buy some candy then?”

Hiroto shook his head. He quickly grabbed his money, handing it to the lady, and grabbed a bag of candy. With nothing else to say, he turned his back to her and lifted a hand to wave good-bye. As he walked he overheard a not so subtle sigh from behind him.

“Tatsuya? Aren’t you supposed to be at work right now?”

He turned around to face her, jaw dropping as his face twisted into confusion.

She sighed again.

“Tatsuya… you’re dreaming again, aren’t you?’

….

His eyes snapped open. He was in his own room.

* * *

Tatsuya yawned as he tiredly wiped away the last remains of water from his face.

He had once again woken up to find himself swapped in Hiroto’s bed. This was the twelfth time it had happened this year. He could still remember the utter shook and confusion he had gone through that first time he had woken up in Hiroto’s bed. Granted it wasn’t too long along since his first body swap with the guy, but still. Man was he glad to be back.

During his first switch with Hiroto, Tatsuya had grown extremely fond of the guy’s life. He had a caring dad, a wonderful older sister, a giant clean house with maids no less, a comfy bed, two understanding friends, and no dull achy pains in his body at all! It was paradise!

In this life he didn’t have to shoulder the burden of working several different jobs to support his housemates or live up to being the ‘perfect’ guy everyone in the orphanage expected him to be. In this life he could relax and be as carefree as he wanted to. Not only that, but he had people who looked after him for a change. He wanted to feel guilty for feeling like this but he just couldn’t. Everything about this life was so much better than his own. Well, maybe not everything was better. For one, his housemates weren’t here.

He loved each and every one of them very much. They had been through so much together over the past few years. When their caretakers had abandoned them, it was Midorikawa who had stepped in to fulfill the role of the orphanage’s new caretaker. Over time he had even gotten Tatsuya to start helping out around the home and everything pretty much took off after that. Tatsuya began to pick up part times jobs after school, along with Saginuma and Reina, and had even learned how to cook the best dinners his friends had ever eaten.

All in all, if it weren’t for his housemates he probably wouldn’t have become the person he was today. Though, it was mostly Midorikawa who pushed him to this point. If anything, he wished he could bring Midorikawa with him whenever he swapped bodies with this Hiroto guy. Then they could share the strange adventure together because when he had woken back up in his own body after their first body swap, everything felt different between them.

Midorikawa had treated him as if he were angry with him- giving him side eyed looks and even the silent treatment when he tried to talk with him. It was probably Hiroto’s doing- Because by the end of the night, they had somehow managed to make up. And when Midorikawa went over his behavior, it definitely didn’t sound like him at all.

Apparently, on their first day of switching, Hiroto had burnt everyone’s breakfast, almost skipped school, got into a fight with a lower classmen, and had blown off work at the science museum, leaving Midorikawa to cover his shift. All of which lead to Tatsuya apologizing profusely until Midorikawa begged him to stop.

By the time they had gone to bed, Tatsuya had passed the body swapping thing off as a onetime thing. But when it happened a second and then a third time, he was almost certain it would happen again. And low and behold the fourth swap came and went, followed by several more additional swaps, and now he lay in Hiroto’s bed for the twelfth morning in a row.

Each swap seemed to land on a day where he had a problem to fix for Hiroto though. - On the second day of switching, Tatsuya had been greeted with some worried texts from Haizaki and Mizukamiya, two friends he would later apologize to for ditching at the park. Since the friends seemed to have an unspoken understanding with Hiroto, they let him slide but had jokingly asked for money to compensate the time they spent looking for him after he had supposedly ditched them at a park.

The third swap was spread out from the first two. It happened at least a week or two later when he woke he was once again greeted with a new problem to face. This one had involved him speaking some kind and gentle words to ‘his’ father- trying to make up for some awful things ‘he’ had said the day prior. The fourth swap happened a day later and when he woke he found some faded looking kanji written on his arm.

_Can you try to NOT do something to embarrass me this time?!_

Tatsuya had laughed this and did the complete opposite of what he was asked. During the day he acted in such a behaved way that by the next time they switched, he found a new set of kanji to be written visibly on the side of his check.

_Seriously! Knock it off!_

That time Tatsuya listened. It wasn’t because he wanted to, it was because he _needed_ to. On Hiroto’s side the swap he had managed to upset Midorikawa again, only this time, Reina had somehow gotten involved and it wound up being this whole ordeal he had to fix himself when he was back in his whole body.

After this he had started to leave little messages on his own body as well, asking Hiroto to be more polite to his friends, to get to work on time, and just anything he could think of that might make returning to his body a little bit easier. Hiroto continued to leave little messages on himself as well. So now when they switched Tatsuya made certain to check ‘his’ body for any new information or requests he needed to know of.

He first looked to arms and found them to be bare of any writing. His legs were pretty much the same, excluding the few bandages he found wrapped around them. And when he looked in the mirror across the room, he found his face blank as well, save for the blue lightning bolt tattooed over ‘his’ left eye. Under any other circumstance, this should’ve been a good thing. But since he had grown so used to finding messages written on himself, it felt really unpleasant now without finding anything new to read.

He took a breath, willing the pounding of his heart to settle down and when it did he smiled. He was just getting himself worked up over nothing. Everything was fine. So what if there were no new messages for him today? The switches always seemed to happen at random anyway so if Hiroto hadn’t written anything down then it was totally fine. Hiroto didn’t have to write something new every day if he didn’t want to- unlike Tatsuya who left a little something each night even though he would, more often than not, wake up to find his own writing on his own body the next morning anyway-

Tatsuya shook his head when he felt the sides of his face start to heat up. He kept his eyes trained on anything but the mirror, knowing full and well that if he looked up, he’d find a blush on his cheeks.

Deep down he knew why he was feeling so anxious-

“Hiroto! It’s time to get up! We’ve let you sleep in too long today.” A voice called out from the other side of his bedroom door. It was Hitomiko. “I know it’s the weekend and all but you can’t just sleep all day! You should get out of the house for a little or something.” Hitomiko continued for a moment before leaving with a final knock.

After ‘living’ with Hiroto’s family for the past couple of months, Tatsuya had come to slowly understand Hitomiko’s unspoken words. He’d had to read between the lines most of the time to fully understand her though. Whenever Hitomiko tried to wake him up in the mornings it was never that she was trying to be his human alarm clock. It was more like her wanting to hang out with Hiroto. She mostly wanted to talk apparently seeing as the real Hiroto and her never really had any long-lasting conversations. But when it was him and her talking, they could spend hours on end chatting up a storm. Tatsuya pitied her on this. It must be hard for her to connect with the real Hiroto.

Something about the thought made Tatsuya tense. Hiroto and him were connected in a way only they knew about it and yet they had never exchanged numbers or met in person. It was strange to say the least. They had each-others contact information and obviously knew where their own homes were, so why hadn’t they tried reaching out to each other during the entirety of the year?

In a way it was kind of an unspoken rule they had both indirectly made. If they stayed away from each other during the hours of their body swapping then everything would be okay. The same rule applied even after they were back in their own bodies.

But just what would be okay? As far as Tatsuya knew, only the two of them knew about each-others swapped realities. So why couldn’t they meet? What was the worst thing that could happen anyway? It wasn’t like the very fabric of space would rip itself apart if they saw each other, right? Come to think of it, how had they managed to go so long without ever once crossing paths? It took some time himself to figure this out, but the whole time they had been swapping bodies, they had been living in the same exact city! The only thing keeping them apart was the fact that they lived on the complete opposite side of town than the other.

Tatsuya sighed. Now that he was thinking about it, he really did want to meet up with Hiroto soon, even if it did mean he’d only be seeing his own face. But than again, would Hiroto even want to see him? He’d never know unless he tried asking and there really was nothing stopping them from texting. As far as he knew, Hiroto’s day should be free on his end- There was no school for either of them to be attending for the day and if he remembered correctly, he also had the day off from work so maybe they could possibly meet up?

He quickly grabbed ‘his’ phone off the side of his bed and added in his own contact information to the messaging app. He then proceed to typing out a quick hello and followed through by asking for Hiroto to meet up with him later that night at a restaurant located in the middle of the city. Before he could talk himself out of deleting the text, he sent the message and flipped the phone over to hide the screen from view. It was all up to Hiroto now. If he wanted to meet up then that was up for him to decide.

Tatsuya stretched as he got up from the bed. Even if Hiroto didn’t want to hang out he still wanted to get dressed and ready for the day. If he wound up getting a “no” as a reply to his text then he could at least try hanging out with Hitomiko for the day. He was just about ready to start making his way over to the closet when ‘his’ phone began to vibrate on the bed. He quickly grabbed for it and was surprised to find his own name lit up on the screen. Hiroto had texted back.

**Tatsuya: _I guess. Just do me a favor and dress my body up in something nice BUT NOT TOO NICE!!! I don’t need my dad or sister asking questions GOT IT?!_**

Tatsuya let out a small laugh before typing back a reply.

**Hiroto: _I got it. I’ll do my best and if you could do the same for my body, I’d really appreciate it. Oh! And if anyone does ask where you’re going just tell them you were called in to work and couldn’t get out of it, okay?_**

He waited for a reply back but when he didn’t receive any he left the phone on the bed and made his way over to the closet. He could feel the little butterflies already forming in his stomach as he looked over the assortment of clothes to choose from.

…

Around 7 o’clock Tatsuya announced that he was going to be heading out for the night. Both Hitomiko and the maid who was in the room at the time of his announcement looked at him with a matching faces of confusion. Neither knowing what to make of the sudden news as they watched Hiroto’s body make its way out of the house.

“Be careful!” Hitomiko called out.

Tatsuya smiled, waving as he left the home, walking with a small skip in his step outside of the house. Since he had planned on walking to the restaurant he had made sure to put on some comfy sneakers before leaving the house. The clothes he had picked were more or less date worthy, a nice button up dress shirt with dark grey pants. Though he knew this wasn’t going to be a date, he still wanted to look as presentable as possible.

And if he did want to pretend this was a date, well Hiroto didn’t have to know.

He smiled to himself as he walked through the city. The lights radiating off the signs of the stores he passed only made him feel all the more happy. He’d seen them shining in the night dozens of times before but for some reason, they just all felt different now. It was almost as if they were glowing brighter now; their colors shining vibrantly in contrast to the clashing night setting, making him feel as if he were walking into an enchanting world.

He looked away from the lights, pulling out ‘his’ phone to text Hiroto when he arrived at a stop light. A few cars drove past him before the streetlights signaled it was his turn to cross the street. He tucked ‘his’ phone back into his pants pocket and took a step out onto the road. As he walked a sharp pain radiated deep within in his chest. Causing him to freeze in place, he clutched a hand to his chest when the pain amplified before it all but disappeared.

The sound of car horn echoed in the distance and it was only then that Tatsuya realized it was no longer his turn to be on the road. He blinked several times at the car standing inches away from him before he ran off to the sidewalk. He breathed a sigh of relief as he watched the car drive off into the distance.

“That was too close for comfort.” He mumbled to himself, unknowingly walking into an alleyway.

The pain he had felt moments prior once again radiated within his chest. He reached a hand to grab at his chest but stopped mid motion when a low chuckle sounded behind him.

“Oi! This isn’t a safe place to be hanging around you know.”

He gasped at the sudden sound of metal clanging against metal.

The next thing he knew, he was sitting up in his own bed back at the Sun Garden orphanage with tears running down his cheeks.

* * *

It had been raining for nearly a week now. From the moment he had opened his eyes, the rain had been coming down in sheets. The walls and windows rattled all around the orphanage non-stop as they took on the continued onslaught of rain. Thunder would occasionally sound in the distance, causing him to flinch, but otherwise, he remain motionless on his bed. In a way, the rain was like a comfort to him. The way it stuttered at times, pouring loudly and then dying down for several seconds, before picking right back up again made him feel as if it were shedding all of his tears for him. It was nice. There were a few times where he felt his own tears slipping down his face in time with the pitter-patter of the rain against the windows in the room as well. Those were just as comforting-

What wasn’t comforting were the silent stares he received from his housemates as they drifted in and out of the shared room throughout the days.

Although he hadn’t told any of them what had happened that first night he had woken up crying, they all seemed to understand how something wasn’t right. For that first day, they had let him stay in bed without any real interruption, only bothering to check up on him to bring in breakfast and dinner. When the following day came, Midorikawa assumed everything was better and had tried to pull him out of bed to get breakfast started. But when Tatsuya tumbled to the ground and let out a few chocked sobs, the few people who had been awake went around telling everyone else to leave him alone again. This cycle continued on for the next couple of days and with each passing day, Tatsuya found more and more of his friends giving him worried looks.

He wanted to tell them he was fine, that he was going to be okay, but every time he thought of telling them so, he found a new set of tears suddenly rolling down his cheeks.

Today was no different. That is until Midorikawa showed up again. The green haired male had finally had enough of Tatsuya’s depressed state and promptly waited for everyone to leave the shared bedroom before he sat down at the edge of Tatsuya’s bed. He gave Tatsuya a pat on the ankle, sighing when he received a small whimper. He waited another moment before he began to speak, words coming out gently. “Let’s get out of here for a little.”

Tatsuya could only shake his head from where he lay.

Midorikawa sighed again. “Just for a little bit?... It won’t be long and if- and if you really can’t handle being out of the house we’ll come right back, okay?”

This time it was Tatsuya’s turn to sigh. He knew what Midorikawa was trying to do. They’d done this for each other countless times in the past. Whenever anyone one of their housemates would close themselves off for an extensive amount of time, someone would always try to get them out the house for a little in order to try and cheer them up. Sometimes it worked and other times it didn’t. It all depended on how close the two people were. And since Midorikawa and him were pretty close, it made sense that Midorikawa would try to do this for him.

Tatsuya reluctantly took a moment to think things over. He wanted to get out for a little, knowing full and well he’d have to start moving around eventually. But the thought of leaving now made him feel sick. Ever since his last switch with Hiroto, he’d sent over half a dozen texts every other day, hoping to get some kind of reply from him. But nothing ever came back. Deep down Tatsuya knew why nothing was coming back but he kept trying- It was the only thing he could think of doing- Because, what if on the smallest of chances, he’d received a text? And what if he got the text while he was out? He couldn’t risk missing it. Of course he’d have his phone on him, but still…

He looked to Midorikawa and then back to the phone he had hidden under his blankets. He sighed. Who was he kidding? There wouldn’t be any new texts today anyway.

“I guess.” He whispered with reluctance. “But you’ll have to give me at least an hour to get ready.”

Midorikawa seemed to lighten up at that. “Okay then! Take all the time you need, just meet me outside whenever you’re ready!” He smiled as he removed himself from the bed, making his way out of the room.

Tatsuya got up not too long after, hand gripping his phone like a vice as he rose from the bed. Everything was going to be okay.

…

As soon as they entered the arcade a strange sense of anxiety washed over him like a tidal wave hitting a surfer. It caused him to take a few steps backwards, but Midorikawa caught his wrist, eyeing him for a moment.

“Is this too much? We can go somewhere else if you’d like?”

“No no I’m…” He looked around at the games before settling his eyes on crane machine. “I just wasn’t expecting to see one of those.”

Midorikawa followed his train of sight, letting go of Tatsuya’s wrist. “Oh? You mean the crane machine? I guess it’s not something we see every day- Sorry about that… Uh, let’s check it out?” The consternate in his voice didn’t go unnoticed by Tatsuya.

“Yeah…”

The two made their way over to one of the unattended crane machines. Several animal themed plushies occupied most of the space inside of the glass of the game. A few hats with random logos accompanied the mass of the plushies, but they all looked too small for him to wear. Midorikawa watched him with weary eyes as he looked over the plushies. None of them were really catching his eye but since he was there anyway he grabbed a coin from his pocket and inserted it into the game.

“Oh! Do you know which one you’re gonna get?”

Tatsuya shook his head and instead stepped aside to let Midorikawa stand in front of the joy con. “Not really but you can try for something if you’d like.”

Midorikawa blinked, confusion taking over his features before he moved over to play the game.

“Thanks?”

Tatsuya nodded and turned his attention elsewhere. His eyes traveled around the rest of the arcade as he waited for Midorikawa to finish up with the crane machine. Most of the games he found where already being played with by single players or groups of friends. The only ones that appeared to be open where the rhythm games located on the opposite side he was at. When he looked to one of the rhythm games in particular, he suddenly felt a strong pang of longing bubble up inside of him. For some reason it felt as if the game was calling him.

He looked to Midorikawa, who appeared to be intensely focused on a particular plushie, and then back at the rhythm game. He wanted to go check it out as soon as possible.

“I’ll be right back.” He muttered as he walked towards the game.

When he was standing right in front of the game he tapped on the screen. It opened up for him with a paused game readily awaiting to be started up again. He shrugged his shoulders as he unpaused the game. A free game was a free game and who was he turn it down? No one else seemed to be around and when he tapped at each colored sequence, nobody seemed to be trying to stop him. In fact, everything around him seemed to be surprisingly quiet when compared to the game. He decided to glance a look over his shoulder just to see if something had happened to make everyone go silent but when he looked, he found himself to be surrounded in a world of white light.

He stopped playing the game altogether as he took in his surroundings. Everywhere he turned there was nothing but white light. The only thing he could see was the screen of the rhythm game, which was now locked on the top score page. He watched as name after name passed by on the screen up until it reached the very top of the page. The name he found made him gasp in shock. In bold italic letters, the name **_Hiroto_** was displayed as the first place slot of the game. He couldn’t stop himself from reaching out to touch the screen, not believing it to be the same Hiroto he knew, but still hoping for it to be him.

When his fingertips touched the screen the world around him suddenly shattered along with the screen.

Images of Hiroto surrounded him in seconds. Some of the images moved while others remained in a static pause. Tatsuya reached out a hand to touch one of the images but as soon as he made contact with it, the image flew backwards, too far out of reach for him to try reaching for it again. Another image took its place only this time the image appeared to be a video of some sort.

Tatsuya held his breath when voices began to sound in tune with the video.

_“Oi! This isn’t a safe place to be hanging around you know.”_

The video was playing back his last switch with Hiroto? But from the looks of it, everything was coming from Hiroto’s perspective.

 _‘Huh?’_ Hiroto’s voice echo, which Tatsuya could only assume meant that this was what Hiroto was thinking in the moments after their sudden body swap. ‘ _I’m me again? But how?’_

_“Hey! I’m talking to you here!”_

Hiroto turned to look at the guy, ready to make a snappy comeback when his eyes fell upon the object in the man’s hand. He kept his mouth shut as the man took a threatening step towards him.

 _“It’s no use trying to run…”_ The man smirked. _“It’s nothing personal kid, I just have to meet a certain quota or else my boss’ gonna have my neck.”_

“NO!” Tatsuya shouted out when the man in the video lifted up his weapon. Tears brimmed the corners of his eyes as he watched Hiroto take a step back to run. There was no way he was going to make it out of there-

“HIROTO!” He shouted as the screen flashed red before it shattered in front of him.

He reached both hands out to try to grab onto the quickly disappearing fragments but found each of them to disappearing whenever they came into his grasp. Tears streamed down his cheeks his continued to grab at the shattered fragments. It couldn’t end like this. What was the point in watching this video if it meant he couldn’t do anything about it to fix it afterwards? That’s why it shattered right? It wanted him to fix it, right? But how could he if every shattered piece he touched vanished!

He knew why- Because it wasn’t trying to get him to fix it. The video was only trying to give him some closure, nothing more and nothing less. He took a breath as he wrapped his arms around himself. There was nothing he could do anymore…

But then, another video appeared before him. There was something off about this one. It started playing in his perspective, right before the switch, where he was standing in the middle of road with that one car honking at him. The video showed him walking in a different area, away from the alleyway, and down a street bursting with life. Tatsuya held his breath as the video continued to show ‘himself’ walking all the way to the restaurant he and Hiroto had agreed to meet up at. When ‘he’ had arrived in front of the restaurant the video abruptly came to a stop.

Tatsuya sniffed as he looked over the paused video. What did it mean? Was this the path he should’ve taken? – Would this have been waiting for him if he had paid better attention to his surroundings? His eyes feel to the bottom corner of the video. He gasped at the blur of red hair. That was him wasn’t it?- Hiroto!

He reached out a hand to touch the video and was surprised to feel how solid it was under his fingers.

It… wasn’t breaking?

He placed his other hand on the screen and watched with bated breath as the screen slowly began to ripple under his touch. The screen then began to rise over his hands and arms, slowly encasing him. Tatsuya allowed this to happen. He wasn’t sure what was going on or if this was even safe but something told him to stay put, so he did. When the video advanced closer to his face, he shut his eyes. Everything was going to be okay.

The sound of static filled his ears moments later.

…

When he opened his eyes again he no longer found himself surrounded by white light or pictures. He was instead standing several feet away from the restaurant he had seen just moments prior. A soft smile tugs at the corner of his lips as he looks to the building before he quickly shakes his head. Was this even real? Was this an illusion the rhythm game was playing on him? Would the world shatter if he touched something?

He turned his gaze away from the building, sighing as he look at anything other than the restaurant.

A hint of gray hair caught his attention when he looked into a crowd of people heading his way. He squinted at the crowd, trying to zero in his focus on the owner with gray hair. When he caught a glimpse of those added white streaks of hair, Tatsuya threw all caution to the wind, shoving his way through the crowd and crashing right into Hiroto’s awaiting arms. Hiroto swept him off his feet as he twirled them around, a wet laugh escaping past his lips.

“You’re here!” Hiroto breathed, squeezing Tatsuya against him as hard as he could.

Tatsuya could only nod back, burying his face into Hiroto’s neck, taking a deep breath to try to still his rapidly beating heart.

Some people scoffed as they stepped around them but neither of them could care less. They were together and that’s all that mattered. Nobody else could ever hope to understand the things they’d been through in the past few days. But it was okay because they knew, or at least, Tatsuya hoped Hiroto knew-

He pulled back to consider Hiroto for a moment. His throat dried when he took note of the few tears pooling down Hiroto’s face. He reached a hand up to cup the side of Hiroto’s face and gasped when Hiroto leaned into the touch before moving his hand to place a gentle kiss into his palm. Their eyes locked together for a moment and Tatsuya knew right away that Hiroto knew what had happened too. He couldn’t help the little giggle from sliding past his lips as he continued to stare into Hiroto’s eyes. Hiroto returned the smile with one of his own as he leaned in close, knocking their foreheads together gently, holding Tatsuya close.

“It’s really you… I can’t believe you’re here.” Hiroto whispered.

“Yeah…” Tatsuya responded, allowing his own tears to fall down his cheeks. “And you’re here too.”

They fell silent, quietly taking in each other’s presence before Hiroto’s eyes flickered down. Tatsuya felt the heat rising on his cheeks as he followed Hiroto’s gaze. He ever so slightly nodded his head, letting Hiroto know it was okay before closing his eyes. Their lips in a gentle kiss. Tatsuya shivers when he feels Hiroto’s arms tighten around his waist and in turn he brings his hands up to cup the sides of Hiroto’s face.

Hiroto takes this a sign and decidedly slides his tongue across Tatsuya’s lips. Tatsuya all but smiles as he allowed Hiroto entrance, holding onto him even closer as he let the other gently explore his mouth. It was a nice feeling- Having Hiroto holding onto him as if he were a precious gem. It was so… _surreal._ In the past year, he’d come to learn how harsh Hiroto was with everyone he knew, including himself, but now? He wasn’t so sure what to make of Hiroto. But judging by the way things were going, he was almost certain he’d have plenty of time to figure out this side of Hiroto.

When the need for air had grown too strong they both pulled away with a quiet wet sound. Tatsuya panted quietly, hands slipping away from Hiroto’s face to instead intertwine with his fingers.

“So…I guess this means-“

He didn’t get a chance to say anything else because he was quickly yanked back into a tight hug.

“This means you’re gonna be stuck with me for as long as you’ll have me.” Hiroto whispered into his ear.

Tatsuya smiled, returning the hug. “Then I guess we’ll be together forever then!”

**Author's Note:**

> Alola! Thank you for taking some time to read this fanfic! It was a lot of fun to write and if I'm being honest, I was a little reluctant to post it at all. I love the character dynamic between Hiroto and Tatsuya...  
> I'd also like to mention a few things left out of the story!  
> I had originally wanted to involve Haizaki and Mizukamiya in the final arcade scene but because it was implied that Hiroto had died, I didn't want it to make it seem like they were out having fun at place the three of them would sometimes hang out at. So they were cut from that-  
> As for Midorikawa... Since Tatsuya went back in time, Midorikawa safely back at home. ((He's probably doing homework or something like that so there's no need to worry too much)).  
> And finally~
> 
> Tatsuya and Hiroto eventaully go into the restaurant and talk about the strange experiences they had before they both ended up outside the restaurant. We all know what happened to Tatsuya but what happened to Hiroto? Well, while he was...dead...he had been watching over Tatsuya. So when Tatsuya had left gone to the arcade Hiroto had somehow possessed the rhythm game to draw Tatsuya to it. And when Tatsuya touched it they were able to connect in a limbo kind of world- Hiroto showed Tatsuya his final moments and then showed him what could have been. And since Tatsuya wanted to bring him back so bad A MIRACLE HAPPENED!!! Time reversed and Hiroto was able to come back to life~
> 
> And yeah! That's it for this story. I hope you all enjoyed it and once again, thank you for reading!


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